`Shopping Spree' May Land Pippen In Boston

Longley Also Part Of Deal Bulls Mulling For Celtics' 3rd, 6th Picks

The Bulls late Tuesday were considering trading Scottie Pippen to the Boston Celtics for the No. 3 and No. 6 picks in Wednesday's NBA draft.

The Bulls reportedly would use the picks to select from among Utah forward Keith Van Horn, Kentucky guard/forward Ron Mercer and guard/forward Tracy McGrady, the latest high school player to bypass college for the NBA.

The Celtics are pushing for the deal, according to NBA insiders and sources close to the team. It reportedly would also include Bulls center Luc Longley. As of late Tuesday no agreement had been reached, and a Celtics source said he believed the Bulls were talking with another team as well.

"Everyone in the league is on a huge shopping spree," Celtics General Manager Chris Wallace said.

Including the Celtics. "The only thing we don't need is a 12th man," coach Rick Pitino said. "Any time you mortgage your future, the player you bring in has to be an impact player and almost make you a playoff team right away.

"We're studying about five different scenarios. It's a lot of fun."

A Bulls-Celtics deal would be complicated by salary-cap restrictions and, if it were made, probably could not be announced until after the draft.

That's because the salaries of the involved players don't match up, which they must when teams are over the salary cap, as the Bulls and Celtics are.

Pippen will make $2.8 million next season; Longley, $3.1 million.

What the Celtics would have to do is pick the players the Bulls want, then sign them and send them to the Bulls to match up with the Pippen and Longley salaries.

That kind of transaction could raise questions within the NBA, though "gentlemen's agreements" are usually allowed, as was the case in 1987, when Seattle selected Pippen for the Bulls.

It's also possible the Celtics could substitute a young player such as Antoine Walker or Eric Williams for the lower draft pick. That probably would require adding other players to the deal to equalize the salaries.

Longley, like Pippen, is entering the final year of his contract and it's doubtful the Bulls would re-sign him given his increasing physical problems. Rather than allow Pippen and Longley to walk away without compensation, the Bulls are trying to get younger players for them to protect their future.

With Michael Jordan expected to play one more season, the Bulls would have only Randy Brown, Ron Harper, Toni Kukoc and Dickey Simpkins under contract after next season. That would leave them as much as $15 million under the salary cap, with such free agents as Kevin Garnett, Antonio McDyess, Jerry Stackhouse and Damon Stoudamire becoming available.

A Pippen trade, were it to occur, would also hasten resolution of coach Phil Jackson's status with the Bulls.

Jackson's contract is up, and General Manager Jerry Krause and Chairman Jerry Reinsdorf told him last week it would be his decision whether he wanted to coach the team once its "makeup" was known after the draft. Jackson, Jordan and Pippen have been vehement about their desire to keep the Bulls' nucleus intact as they seek their second NBA title "three-peat" of the '90s. Jordan has vowed to retire if Jackson isn't brought back, and he has voiced equally strong feelings about Pippen remaining a Bull.

But Krause and Reinsdorf have been equally adamant about the need to retool the roster and make it younger for the long haul.

There's some irony in the Bulls discussing Pippen with Boston; Reinsdorf has repeatedly cited the Celtics as an example of what the Bulls cannot become--once-proud champions who grew old and inferior by holding onto star players too long.

Another rumor making the rounds Tuesday had the Seattle SuperSonics again ready to deal an unhappy Shawn Kemp to the Bulls for Pippen and another player, a trade the teams failed to pull off on draft day in 1994.

Pippen and Kemp have roughly comparable salaries--Kemp will make $3.3 million next season--but he is to get a $14.1 million balloon payment in 2001, the final year of his contract, which the Bulls don't want to pay. Pippen will be a free agent after next season, with no guarantee he'll stay with any team to which he's traded.

Indications are that the Bulls have lowered their asking price for Pippen after he was on the market all week and brought no takers. Most teams that believe he is a bargain for salary-cap purposes also believe he is a big risk; he can opt for free agency in 1998, and he'll be 32 in September.

The Philadelphia 76ers dropped out of the Pippen derby because new boss Larry Brown believed Stackhouse, the No. 2 pick and a lesser player were too much to give up for the All-Star forward.

"To get Scottie would take trading all our young talent," Brown said Tuesday. "Then we wouldn't be that good and we wouldn't be able to keep him anyway."

Brown said he hasn't spoken with Krause since their initial discussions last week. Brown also said he doesn't think Pippen is leaving the Bulls.

"I'd like them to keep that team together. They're good for basketball," he said.